Sharpton Plans Verrazano March

Rev. Al Sharpton Wednesday accused police union leaders of trying to “turn back the clock” on civil rights, a day after they sharply criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio’s response to the death of a man in police custody.

“There is a climate of trying to turn back the clock,” Mr. Sharpton told reporters in Midtown Manhattan, after meeting with labor and civil rights leaders at 1199 Service Employees International Union headquarters.

Mr. Sharpton said the group would organize a march across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island, where 43-year-old Eric Garner died after being placed in an apparent chokehold by an New York Police Department officer on July 17. Police said he was allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes and resisted arrest.

“We will march across the Verrazano Bridge to say, we will not go back to where we were 25 years ago,” Mr. Sharpton said.

The civil rights leader said Mr. de Blasio’s support for his group and others who vocally opposed the controversial police tactic called stop-and-frisk, “determined the results of the mayor’s election.”

“The reason that many voted for Mr. de Blasio is he agreed with our policies,” Mr. Sharpton said. To the police unions, he added: “We won the election.”

On Tuesday, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch called a medical examiner report that found a chokehold contributed to Mr. Garner’s death “a political document,” and criticized Mr. de Blasio’s handling of the incident.

Standing with Mr. Lynch, Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said Mr. Sharpton was “not a credible individual.” He also seemed to suggest that officers delay their response times.

“We want you to follow the rule book, the way it’s written. And if there’s a delay in getting to the next place, so be it,” Mr. Mullins said.

Messrs. Mullins and Lynch also advised NYPD members that there should be more supervision on all arrests, even if it leads to delays in responding to calls.

Mr. Mullins said he wasn’t threatening a work slowdown but instead advising officers to protect themselves in an environment in which he said, “everything cops do is wrong.”

“My message was as a cop in the street you’re being second guessed in everything you do, so don’t worry about how long it takes. Somebody else is out there, somebody will get to that job,” Mr. Mullins said Wednesday by phone.

Mr. Mullins called Mr. Garner’s death a tragedy.

“What happened on this case is tragic, and it’s tragic for this city as a whole,” he said. “As a result of that case we now have a city that’s like a boiling pot with racial tension and it shouldn’t be the case.”

A spokesman for Mr. Lynch didn’t immediately return a request for comment.